From The Royal Institution.

Ancient DNA offers a remarkable window into our past, allowing us to uncover crucial details about human history that would otherwise remain hidden. Earlier this year, UCL research fellow Pooja Swali joined us at the Ri to share her latest research into ancient pathogens.

The paper was officially published in Science last week (link below!), so this month we’re revisiting Pooja’s research to understand what ancient DNA can teach us about the history of human civilisation.  

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• Read Pooja’s full paper here (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr2147?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%20%200pubmed)  

• Get tickets for upcoming talks and livestreams: https://www.rigb.org/whats-on  

This talk was recorded in our Theatre at the Royal Institution on Saturday 1 March 2025. 

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Pooja Swali is a Research Fellow at UCL and her research focuses on the retrieval, detection and analysis of pathogen genomes from historical samples to trace their evolutionary journey across time. Through the combined analysis of ancient and contemporary genomes, her work strives to understand the fundamental evolutionary processes that have influenced the genomes and geographical distribution of these species today. Previously, she completed her PhD at the Francis Crick Institute Ancient Genomics Laboratory (2018 – 2023). In 2023 she was awarded the Scientific Achievement award at the Crick for her PhD work on Prehistoric plague genomes from Britain. Pooja was also awarded the 2023 Agricultural, Biological, and Medical Sciences Award Lecture from the British Science Association for her work in Science Communication.

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Producer: Lia Hale
Music: Joseph Sandy